Cape of Good Hope.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 532, 21 May 1851, Page 2

Cap e of Good Hope.

Journals from the Cape to the 24th of Feb. had been received at Sydney, but they did not communicate any very satisfactory intelligence respectieg the Kafir insurrection (of some of the principal incidents of which an account appeared in the New Zealander of the 3rd instant.) The tide had in some measure turned against the rebels, whose successes in their collisions with the British troops it was then our disagreeable duty to record; but it was evident that the struggle was far from being terminated. The following summary, from the Sydney Herald of the '26th ult., contains the most recent news :—: — The following is at connected a summary of the proceedings as the conflicting and meagre accounts from the seat of war has enabled us to compile:— The levy en masse which Sir Haruy Smith relied upon had been hutap/trtial one. A court martini had br.cn established at Graham's Town for the trial of those burghers who, haying enrolled themselves, afterwards refuted lo serve. An attack made upon Fort Beaufort, or* the 23rd of January by the rebels, under Hrkmaftus, was successfully resisted by General Somerset, Hcrmantts being; killed. Upon the news of this defeat, the Kreli Kafiri, after a long discussion, declared for peace. In the meantime outrages by small parties of Kafir*, joined by a few Hottentots, were committed in various parts of the country, in most cases with impunity. On ihe 30th of January, Colonel Mackinnon,. with a large body of the British troops, Hottentot levies* and Fingoes, in all, 2200 men, succeeded in. throwing supplies into Forts White and Cox. The force vvas attacked by numerous hordes of Kafirs, who bung upon them left and rear, but were repulsed with considerable loss. The accounts from the frontier from this time to [he date of our latest papers are merely a series of 3ta»!l affairs, in which the Kafirs were for the moit part unsuccessful. The Fingoes and th« Hottentot* (with the exception of a few of the latter) appenr to have acted mo»t bravely, and being, fond of predatory warfare,, were valuable auxiliasiei to the British. The Kafirs, it was said, were concentrating themselves in the Amatolous, but nevertheless showed every dißclinattion to fight large bodies of troops* It is to be feared that a long and harrassmg warfare is before the unfortunate colonists.

We have been favoured by Captain Thompson, of the Packet, with a few San Francisco papers of more recent dates than had previoosly reached us ; one of them being so late as the 2»d March We do not find in any of them a regular list of prices; but Captain Thompson informs us: that he saw at Sydney a San Francisco list of the Ist March. The only observable alteration was in timber, which had risen remarkably. It had fallen so low as twenty-five dollars per thousand feet, but was up again to fifty-five and even sixty-five dollars. We infer, however, from the papers before us that the general depression in business was not mitigated. The auctions were veiy thinly attended, and soon adjourned, the prevalent feeling of sellers being not to allow sales to be pressed at such low rates. Bricks were in better request, the stocks being much reduced. A large quantity of boots had been forced into the market at losing prices. But a great proportion of the goods offered were in bad order ; and operations of all kinds were limited, and very little had been shipped for the interior. The depth of the financial embarrassment into which the City Officers had plunged San Francisco continued to be revealed. In an unsparing article on the subject, the Alia California of Feb. 29th declares, " We are bankrupt, worse than bankrupt, for the city is disgraced, — she has not credit of having acted honestly.'* The debt, it appears, is over a million of dollars ; the interest on it will amount to about half a million of dollars annually ; many of the current expenses now have to be met by scrip; and the scrip is still depreciating in value, so as not to be worth thirty per cent. Theonly chance of wiping out the debt which the Alta can see is — " wiping out the men who have ruined the city." This could be done, it is urged, at the election of officers in April, when the people have " the opportunity of electing at least decent men in place of the Egyptian locusts which have destroyed every green thing — except the forbearance of our people — belonging to San Francisco." What an instmctive commentary on California go-a-head morality does the whole case present ! " California morality !" Why, one of the papers on our table says, " It must be a gratication to our friends at home, some of whom think that we are living here in a semi-barbar-ous state, to know that we are rapidly becoming quite a civilized and Christian community.'* Now this is not given as one of the Yankee witticiwis so often played off even on solemn subjects j but is asserted in sober earnest. And yet we might extract a revolting list of crimes from the very sheet in which it appears. Passing by suicides, thefts, incendierism, and most of the murders, we shall notice one or two crimea, as having attendant circumstances sig-

nificantly illustrative of Cahforman society. la this same paper (the AUa of March 2.) we hive an account of the » Murder of a Judge. A Mr. McCatjly at Sacramento was non-suited i-i a case tried before Justice Sulltjs. An altercation took place between the Judge and the disappointed litigant;— but we must let the AUa tell the fact in its own way,— "High words craned i in which Mr. M'Cauly wanted to fi K ht the Judge He refused, on the ground that MC. *ra<s not a genMemnn ; but proposed to send for a big nigger to do it for him. M'Cauly inquired of him if he was to infer from that remark that he was no better than a niKger?— to which the judge replied in the nffirmatire; upon which M'Cauly drew his knife and stabbed him three times, the first time penetrating his heart and killing him instantly. The disgusting narrative needs no comment. It is added that the murderer was arrested, " but the people were willing to let justice take its course. 11 In a less horrible case we could not but smile at the naivete with which the journalist mentions this as a notable circumstance But" the people 11 sometimes take "justice" into their own hands. Only two or three days before this occurrence, another tragedy was enacted at Sacramento. A gambler named Rowe shot a citizen named Myers, who had given him no further provocation than interfering as a peace-maker in some squabble in which he was en-aged. The people assembled and appointed a « Committee of Investigation. The Committee reported the facts, and the people resolved to hang the prisoner. The act instantly followed the decision. They broke open the door, forcibly took possession of Rowe, and hung him on an oak tree. 'The execution took place at ten o'clock at night, in the presence of four thousand persons, the swne being made terribly distinct by bonfires," We suppose it is in reference to this, that the correspondent of the Alia winds up his account of an attempt at assassination, which took place a night or two after, with the pithy remark, «' Some more Lynching is needed yet in Sacramento." . Less terrible, but not less characteristic, is a statement of the Alia on another day, in reporting the proceedings in the Recorders Court at San Francisco :— " A number of persons charged with larceny, and with disorderly conduct were discharged. This result was produced by the crowded condition of the stationhouse." , . T And this is the social state into which men, having the reputation of sanity, voluntarily cast themselves and their families, lured by what the experience of multitudes has proved to be, in the majority of instances, only an aggravated delusion and snare ! There is scarcely any new intelligence from the gold districts, except that, at the North Fork of Feather River, rich discoveries of « quite coarse" gold are said to have been made. But the road to the diggings was for several miles very dangerous, being covered with snow to the depth of from four to fifteen feet. Provisions were very scarce, — barley readily •commanding a dollar per pound. The route was lined with the dead bodies of mules that had perished for want of food. At the « Rich Bar 1 ' the charge for board had advanced to eight dollars per day, " and then the poorest fare is served up."